$30 – Contra Costa County, California

Love this wine!  We opened this at our first “wine tasting” that we had at our new apartment after our honeymoon trip to California wine country.  It’s got excellent aromas of spicy oak and fresh berries, and it has a great, juicy character!  My initial impression of the taste was like watermellon, settling into strawberry, blueberry, and mocha.  Great again and again.  It was definitely a people pleaser – not many suspected that such a sweet and juicy wine could still pack that “zin” punch.  9.1